the in-laws are in town for a night, and after showing them around our neighborhood, eating lunch on our back deck and looking at photos from their recent trip to greece, we’re about to head out to an early dinner in noe valley. MR. IN-LAW is taking a brief cat nap on our bed and ABN is explaining his job to MS. IN-LAW. i’m taking a few minutes to write, because if i don’t, i fear i simply won’t.

we’re all unpacked which is just…lovely. i feel settled and while we have no friends to speak of…i have my bed and new towels from restoration hardware and a place for all my shoes and these are things that i need to survive.

i spoke to CURLY this morning and i know this is going to sound extremely…lame…but it was just so wonderful/calming/natural/reassuring/connecting to hear her voice. obviously we became friends in college (and in some ways before college) but our friendship only strengthened over beer in nyc in our neighborhood irish pub and then when i moved back to boston she arrived not long after because, well, it just made so much more sense for us to live in the same city (i mean, sure she was offered the job of a lifetime but i was there too!). it is hard to be away from everyone – and there are times when it is easy for me to mentally go back to my 17 year-old self, who moved across the country and lost all of her friends. i’m a different person now and i have different friends…but sometimes i still go back to that place. with CURLY i know it’s okay to be far away – it’s better to be together but the distance will not destroy us. today…today i wish we could drink beer in the irish pub a few blocks away, either in my city or hers, and i could hear her voice while looking at her bouncing curls. that would be a perfect sunday.